Eating Disorders as an Eye Opener

I have taken classes that delve into the subject of eating disorders and have always found it interesting to see how some people feel about themselves. When i read these statistics in the past though I never stopped to think about what demographic they were talking about. When reading through “A Way Outa No Way” I thought it was crazy to see that so many factors come into play when dealing with eating disorders. In the study conducted for the essay so many use eating disorders as a way of coping with some kind of trauma that they endured at some point in their lives. It is just sad to think that they feel so used and or abused that they feel the only thing they can control is food. This is whether they choose to eat a lot of it or none of it, they see it as their choice. If only there could be another way for woman to cope with this feeling.

A lot of things stuck out to me in this essay one in particular I found interesting was on page 192 they point out how the girl from Puerto Rico watched a movie on TV about the Romans and how they made themselves throw up so she began to do the same. The media is a major influence on people growing up because the magazines and television dictates “what is beauty”. You see the skinny, light-skinned, etc. woman on the cover or on commercials and say “oh I want to look like that”. This part in the essay points out how even bulimia can seem like a good thing to try because the little girl saw it on television. This message sends the wrong kind of advice to influential people.

In another part of the essay on page 194 they talk about how binging is less expensive than drinking. I found this a bit shocking to think about. Granted alcohol is also harmful, I didn’t realize that people would binge as an alternative because they cannot afford alcohol and they feel that it gives them the same satisfaction. The woman made binging sound even better than alcohol in the way that she could still get all the things done in a day that she needed to. I just found this essay to be very eye opening. I guess when you don’t deal with certain issues personally you don’t frequently stop to think about how others feel.